The joining together of atomic nuclei, especially hydrogen or other light nuclei, to form a heavier nucleus, especially a helium nucleus. Fusion occurs when plasmas are heated to extremely high temperatures, forcing the nuclei to collide at great speed. The resulting unstable nucleus emits one or more neutrons at very high speeds, releasing more energy than was required to fuse the nuclei, thereby making chain-reactions possible, since the reaction is exothermic. Fusion reactions are the source of the energy in the Sun and in other stars, and in hydrogen bombs. See also fission.

Software package supplied by Network Research Corporation claiming to connect various different configurations of LAN.

programming A program transformation where a composition of two functions is replaced by in-lining them and combining their bodies. E.g. f x = g (h x) ==> f x = g (2 * x) g x = x + 1 f x = 2 * x + 1 h x = 2 * x This has the beneficial effect of reducing the number of function calls. It can be especially useful where the intermediate result is a large data structure which can be eliminated. See also vertical loop combination. (1994-12-05)